Marshall University’s president, Jerome Gilbert, sat down to discuss what is happening on campus this school year. 

Gilbert’s day-to-day routine is often filled with meetings, including speaking among face-to-face classes and meeting with the Campus Wide COVID group on Mondays and Wednesdays. 

When he is not in meetings, he is active on campus checking in on students, staff and faculty during the COVID-19 test screening on campus or grabbing some coffee from Starbucks. Gilbert said he has adjusted and adapted to virtual campus life and is making the best of it. 

As the new school year has started, the science program has adapted to the new changes and have been proactive in the lab, Gilbert said. The College of Science made a proposal to be the unit to do some additional surveillance testing.

The college proposed to take water samples of sewage from the residence halls to detect signs of COVID-19 earlier on than the standard COVID-19 testing. If COVID-19 is detected by one person in a specific residence hall, the procedure would call for that entire building to go through a standard COVID-19 testing. 

“If we were to test it and it was all clean, then we would be confident that no one in that residence hall had COVID,” Gilbert said. 

Using this approach would be an added way to prevent the spread of the outbreak. With coordinated procedures and planning, Gilbert said he is pleased with the effort and compliance of the staff and student body. 

The Marshall University football team have also been actively taking caution and routinely getting tested three times a week during the playing season and have consistently tested negative this year thus far. 

“Our football team continues to test and have no positives which is amazing. We’ve been able to play football while some of the other teams have not been able to play because they’ve had so many positive cases,” Gilbert said. 

While adapting to the new normal, Gilbert encourages virtual classes and meetings opposed to face to face interactions, as platforms like zoom and teams have made communication smoother and safer than online and face to face. 

With new resources, adjustments in curriculum, and changes to the Drinko and Morrow Libraries, Marshall University has been fully prepared to accommodate the student body during the COVID-19 pandemic and the obstacles that followed, Gilbert said.

As many changes occur this year, Marshall University also negotiated a new contract with Sodexo in a contract to update Marshall’s meal plan for campus students and commuters. 

“We negotiate the meal plans on a periodic basis with Sodexo, which is our provider, and we can listen to feedback in terms of what are the preferences. So, we use that to help us negotiate with Sodexo for a different package from last year,” Gilbert said. 

Gilbert, though dealing with COVID-19 adjustments on campus, said he is doing his best to remain optimistic for the student body, staff and faculty. 

“Next Fall, a year from now, it’s too early to tell but we could be doing the same thing in the next fall. Hopefully we’ll be beyond the pandemic,” Gilbert said. “I give the students a lot of credit, and the staff and faculty credit for being responsible and for doing the right things and keeping the spread minimal.”

Jena Cordle can be contacted at [email protected].